Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/797

Rh Huxley's delight to hold out his hand to every young man who he thought could profit by his help, and before many years were over his spirit was moving in the minds of many others. Thus it came about that during the latter half of this century, owing largely to Huxley's own labors and to the influence which he exerted not only in England but abroad, there has been added to science a large body of morphological truths, truths which have been demonstrated and must remain, not mere views and theories which may be washed away.

The excitement of the Darwinian controversy, with its far-reaching issues, has been apt to make us forget how great has been the progress of animal morphology during the past half century. Undoubtedly the solution of special problems touching animal forms, and the great theory of natural selection through the struggle for existence, have been closely bound together: the special learning has furnished support for the general theory, and the general theory, besides strongly stimulating inquiry, has illumined the special problems. But the two stand apart, each on its own basis; and were it possible to wipe out, as with a sponge, everything which Darwin wrote, and which his views have caused to be written, there would still remain a body of science touching animal forms, both recent and extinct, acquired since 1850, of which we may well be proud. In gaining that knowledge Huxley, as well by his own labors as by his influence over others, stands foremost, Gegenbaur being almost his only peer; and had Huxley done nothing more, his name would live as that of one of the most remarkable biologists of the present century.

As we all know, he did much more; his influence on England and on the world went far beyond that of his purely scientific writings. But when we reflect that a hundred years hence the image of the man as he went to and fro among men, so bright and vivid to-day, will have become dim and colorless, a shadow as it were, and that then the man will be judged mainly by the writings which remain, we must count these writings as the chief basis of his fame. And, though we may think it possible that the world of that day, much that is unwritten having been forgotten, may find it in part difficult to understand how great a power Huxley was in his time, the lapse of years will, we may be sure, in no way lessen, it may be will heighten, the estimate of his contributions to exact science.

As we all know, he did much more. To the public outside science he first became known as the bold, outspoken exponent and advocate of Darwin's views, and indeed to some this is still his chief fame. There is no need here to dwell on this part of his work, and I speak of it now chiefly to remark that the zeal with